Hey there!
I want to design a 3d printing part for the dashboard of my golf 6, more precisely the top middle part right 
.
I am somewhat experienced with designing parts in fusion 360 for daily usage, but I don’t really know how to design this part.
I did try getting a fit for the front arc and an arc from the middle front to the middle back, then did construct a plane from both arcs and did round the result on both back edges. But I noticed when trying the fit, that the dashboard top is not really symmetric, but has an additional bump to the left.
Do you have any tips/guidance/ideas on how to get a better fit? I did think about scanning it 3d with some lidar device, but I don’t have an iPhone and wouldn’t know where else to get a device.
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Buy or print a contour gauge: https://www.printables.com/model/57209-lockable-contour-gauge
Get the contour you need, trace it onto paper, then get whatever measurements you want, or take a pic and bring it into your modeling program.
Also when doing this, lay out a grid of masking tape with marks for each contour. That way you can align lofts more accurately.
Just take pictures. I use FreeCAD. You just add the picture to whatever plane. I usually put a small precision ruler in the image. Then there is a scaling tool. You pick two points in the imported image and it scales the size of the image so that you can easily create sketches that follow the contours.
Don’t print big stuff blind. Copy your designed part, then do a couple quick slices so that you only print a tiny unit test to check the fit of critical areas.
Having a set of printed radius gauges helps to measure. GL
Hmm I’m not sure whether I did understand correctly. But if it works out that way… I’ll need to take a look at it.
I did slice it to be only the very bottom part of the print to do a test fit. All tests I did before were only slices of the area :)
This is gonna sound really dumb, but get something to make a negative, like a putty or foam or something. Make a negative of the contour, take the negative and trace it on a piece of paper. Scan the paper with a fax machine or scanner from a printer. Export that as an SVG, import it into fusion. Messure you negatives size and scale the image to the negative. Trace the line of the image in fusion.
This will get you within throwing range of fitting.
The problem is, that I need to get some sort of heightmap mesh, not the form of it.
Probably without a 3d scanner, using paper and scissor you will only get a (hopefully) better and better approximation of the real surface.
Anyway, without a 3d scanner, to have some precise measurement you could just use some modeling clay to recreate the correct form and then set some reference point and take measurements from there, it should be precise enough to create a model in Fusion360 that account also for every asymmetry that could be present.
I’m now trying to maybe get an iphone from a friend and test out the 3d scanning of that device. but yeah, i also feel like modeling clay is my best shot.
I would sit in the car with some pieces of cardboard and scissors and repeatedly fit the edge of a piece of cardboard to the curve horizontally at the lowest relevant height, then repeat the process at a fixed interval higher up. You can then measure the cardboard pieces to form a mesh.
Get some childrens playdough, use something rigid like a 3d printed flat box to get the shape negative. Now you can use silicone or sth similar to get the exact shape and attach that part to the piece you actually want to attach. Perfekt shape even for weird geometries, also you can simply change the part that actually needs to be there with out any issues.
I think I will get some modeling clay to get a negative of a shape, if I can’t get my hands on some iphone. Then get measurements from the negative.
Exact iPhone models should be easy to find online
Not talking about getting a negative of the iPhone lol :D The iPhone can 3D-scan stuff, I would like to try it for this use case.
